Geolocation
Airwars assessment
As many as 20 civilians were killed, and dozens more were wounded, in an airstrike on Ariha. Sources were conflicted as to who was to blame. Around half the sources blamed Russian warplanes, while the rest pointed to the Syrian regime. Some sources such as Idlib Media Centre blamed both parties for the raids.
SMO reported that the rockets used were highly explosive, while others said they had sighted vacuum bunker-buster missiles.
The airstrikes reportedly struck residential homes, which led to the collapse of three buildings and huge amounts of material damage. It was reported that an entire family of four were killed when a missile struck and destroyed their home.
Additionally, dozens of other civilians were trapped and wounded. According to RFS, a child was stuck under the rubble for hours after the raid. Similarly, other sources reported there were many missing civilians and the White Helmets worked tirelessly to dig people out of the rubble.
Many of the wounded were allegedly unidentifiable due to “charring” of the bodies.
The incident occured around dawn.
Summary
Sources (30) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (31) [ collapse]
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Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the town of Ariha (اريحا), for which the generic coordinates are: 35.8141415,36.6017972. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Russian Military Assessment:
Original strike reports
Russia has not reported any strikes between February 1st – 31st 2017.